ORAL JUDGMENT

(PER : HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE ANIRUDDHA P. MAYEE)

1. The present Letters Patent Appeal takes exception to judgment and order dated 25.09.2020 passed by the learned Single Judge in Special Civil Application No. 8206 of 2020.

2. The brief facts leading to filing of the present Letters Patent Appeal are as follows :-

2.1 The respondent herein is working as Police Constable in the State Police Service since 2016. She appeared for the post of Police Inspector (Class-II) examination conducted by the Gujarat Public Service Commission after seeking necessary permission from her department. The respondent successfully passed the said examination in the category of scheduled tribe. Her name also appeared in the merit-list at serial No.114 and was thus declared successful with 277.50 marks. Thereafter, the respondent was called for oral interview which was also successfully cleared by her. Vide communication dated 20.09.2018, the Gujarat Public Service Commission informed the respondent that her name has been recommended to the State Government for appointment to the post of Police Inspector (Class – II) and she was directed to undergo medical test which was also cleared on 28.12.2018.

2.2 As per the procedure, the caste certificate of the respondent was sent for verification to the office of the Commissioner, Tribal Development Department, which was then forwarded to the Vigilance Cell for its report and then was submitted to the Caste Scrutiny Committee for validation.

2.3 The Caste Scrutiny Committee in its meeting dated 13.09.2019 considered the case of the respondent along with the documents on record and the Vigilance Cell report and found that the caste certificate of the respondent was valid and legal and the same was unanimously approved by all the members of the Caste Scrutiny Committee.

2.4 Despite the caste certificate of the respondent being held legal and valid by the Caste Scrutiny Committee, no clearance was forwarded from the office of the Commissioner, Tribal Development Department to the office of Inspector General of Police, Rajkot for a period of two months. The respondent made an application to obtain the minutes of the meeting of the Caste Scrutiny Committee under the Right to Information Act which was also duly provided to her showing that the Caste Scrutiny Committee had upheld the validity of her caste certificate.

2.5 Aggrieved by delay in communication from the office of Commissioner, Tribal Development Department to the office of Inspector General and in joining of the respondent to the post of Police Inspector (Class – II), the respondent preferred Special Civil Application No. 8206 of 2020 praying for the following reliefs :-

“(A) This Honourable Court may be pleased to issue a writ of mandamus or a writ in the nature of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, orders or direction, directing the respondent no.2 the Commissioner of Tribal Development Department to send to Office of General Administration Department and Home Department and to the Director General of Police the scrutiny report in relation to caste certificate of the petitioner.

(B) This Honourable Court may be pleased to issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction of like nature directing the pending writ to final disposal of respondent no.2 the Commissioner of Tribal Development Department to forthwith issue the clearance certificate of Scheduled Tribe in favour of petitioner as sought for upon letter dated 15.12.2018.

(C) Pending hearing and final disposal of this writ petition, this Honourable Court may be pleased to direct the respondent no.3 the Home Department give the appoint the petitioner for the post of the Police Inspector.”

2.6 The appellants herein filed their replies and opposed the prayers in the writ petition. The learned Single Judge by impugned judgment and order dated 25.09.2020 was pleased to allow the Special Civil Application directing the appellants herein to carry out necessary formalit